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CLI Reference

kq [options]

Flags

Flag Default Description
--url URL http://localhost:8000 kube-q API base URL (env: KUBE_Q_URL)
--query TEXT / -q TEXT Run a single query and exit (non-interactive)
--no-stream off Disable streaming — wait for full response
--session-id ID Resume a previous session by ID (loads history from local store)
--list List recent sessions and exit
--search QUERY Full-text search across session history and exit
--user-id ID auto Persistent user ID (saved to ~/.kube-q/user-id)
--api-key KEY Bearer token for auth-enabled servers (env: KUBE_Q_API_KEY)
--ca-cert PATH Custom CA certificate bundle for TLS verification
--output {rich,plain} rich rich for markdown rendering; plain for pipe-friendly raw text
--model NAME kubeintellect-v2 Model name sent in requests (env: KUBE_Q_MODEL)
--user-name NAME You Your display name in the prompt (env: KUBE_Q_USER_NAME)
--agent-name NAME kube-q Assistant name in saved conversations (env: KUBE_Q_AGENT_NAME)
--no-banner / --quiet off Suppress logo and header (useful for screen recordings)
--no-health-check off Skip startup health-check retry loop (env: KUBE_Q_SKIP_HEALTH_CHECK)
--debug / --verbose off Log raw HTTP requests/responses to stderr and ~/.kube-q/kube-q.log
--version Print version and exit

Examples

Interactive REPL

# Connect to local backend (default)
kq

# Connect to remote backend
kq --url https://kube-q.example.com

# With API key
kq --url https://kube-q.example.com --api-key my-secret-key

# Custom display names
kq --user-name Alice --agent-name KubeBot

# Skip the startup health check (faster start when server is known-good)
kq --no-health-check

Single-query mode

# Print response and exit
kq --query "show all pods in the default namespace"

# Pipe-friendly plain text
kq --query "list failing deployments" --output plain

# Combine with jq or other tools
kq --query "show pod names" --output plain | grep "crash"

Session management

# List the 20 most recent sessions
kq --list

# Resume a session by ID (shown in --list output)
kq --session-id abc123

# Search across all past sessions
kq --search "deployment rollback"
kq --search "pods AND crash AND NOT staging"

Debugging

# Log raw HTTP traffic to stderr + ~/.kube-q/kube-q.log
kq --debug

# Custom CA cert (corporate proxies, self-signed certs)
kq --url https://internal.example.com --ca-cert /etc/ssl/my-ca.pem

Environment variables

All flags can be set via environment variables. See Configuration for the full list.

export KUBE_Q_URL=https://kube-q.example.com
export KUBE_Q_API_KEY=my-key
kq